More on Descendants

Thomas Doherty and other stars return for Disney’s Descendants 3

British star Thomas Doherty will reprise his role in Disney’s Descendants 3.

The The Lodge star, who portrayed the villainous son of Captain Hook – Harry Hook – in the film, is confirmed to appear in the sequel.

Harry Hook made his first appearance in the franchise in Descendants 2, as the Isle of the Lost-based henchman of Medusa’s daughter Uma (China Anne McClain). His fellow henchman Dill, son of Gaston, will also return for the film, played by Dylan Playfair.

Also returning to the franchise is Sarah Jeffrey, who portrayed Audrey, the daughter of Princess Aurora, in the first film. Her character is the former girlfriend of King Ben (Mitchell Hope). Although she was mentioned in Descendants 2, Audrey did not appear in the film.

Descendants was first released in 2015 and became a massive hit, spawning its first sequel in 2017. It stars Dove Cameron as the calculating Mal, the daughter of Maleficent, as she and her friends are granted access to the land of Auradon, a land of Disney heroes and their children.

The kids plan to disrupt life in Auradon and steal the Fairy Godmother’s magic wand for Maleficent, however they soon realise they are not destined to be as wicked as their parents.

Descendants 3 begins production next month. It will return to Disney Channel in 2019.

More on Star Wars

Here’s the plot of new Han Solo film Solo: A Star Wars Story

The plot of the latest film in the Star Wars universe has been unveiled.

Solo: A Star Wars Story is a new film centred around loveable smuggler Han Solo and is scheduled for release in May this year.

Despite the release date being so soon, there’s not really been a lot of information released to the public about the new film. Thankfully, the first official Disney synopsis for the film was finally posted online yesterday.

The film will focus on the first adventure of best friends Han Solo and Chewbacca as they join forces for the first time when they encounter a crooked gambler. As one might expect, this all takes place in the depths of the criminal underworld – so it’ll probably be a lot of fun.

The official synopsis reads: “Through a series of daring escapades deep within a dark and dangerous criminal underworld, Han Solo meets his mighty future co-pilot Chewbacca and encounters the notorious gambler Lando Calrissian, in a journey that will set the course of one of the Star Wars saga’s most unlikely heroes.”

The new film is directed by multi-Academy Award winner Ron Howard and will star Alden Ehrenreich in the titular role. Donald Glover will play Lando, while big names Woody Harrelson, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Emilia Clarke, Paul Bettany and Thandie Newton will also make appearances.

More on Big Hero 6

Baymax returns in new Big Hero 6: The Series Special images

Ahead of the premiere of Big Hero 6: The Series Special: Baymax Returns on November 30 at 4.30pm on Disney XD, the channel has released some brand new imagery from the new special. The pictures show Hiro, Baymax and their crime-fighting friends all back in action once more – hurrah!

The special picks up after the heartbreaking climax of the 2014 film, in which Baymax sacrificed himself to save Hiro and his friends. Hiro believes his friend is lost forever – until he discovers the chip his brother Tadashi designed to create Baymax.

Hopes restored, Hiro sets about using the chip to rebuild Baymax from scratch. However, this task is easier said than done and Hiro’s overconfidence causes some serious problems for the Big Hero 6 team.

The new special will pave the way for a full series, which will premiere on Disney XD in early 2018.

More on Descendants

The hottest Disney franchise since High School Musical is finally back on our screens this Friday, December 20.

Descendants, the musical drama where the children of Disney’s villains take centre stage, returns this week with a vengeance. When Mal (Dove Cameron) starts to struggle with the perfect life in Auradon with Ben (Mitchell Hope), she seeks the comfort of home. Little does she know that her old nemesis Uma (China Anne McClain) and henchmen Harry Hook (Thomas Doherty) and Gil (Dylan Playfair) have a wicked plan in store.

It’s up to her friends Ben, Evie (Sofia Carson), Jay (Booboo Stewart) and Carlos (Cameron Boyce) to bring Mal home and convince her of the importance of staying true to one’s identity in this touching, all-singing, all-dancing sequel.

We were lucky enough to sit down with the stars of Disney’s Descendants 2, Booboo Stewart and Thomas Doherty, about what’s changed since the first Descendants film, their characters and some crazy new stunts.

Starting off with their characters, Booboo tells us that Jay, the son of Aladdin villain Jafar, has been through a lot of changes since the first film. While he used to follow in Jafar’s lead, Jay’s now evolved into his own person – and a completely different one to his father.

“In the first movie, there’s a lot of similarities. He works for his father. He’s stealing things. He’s a thief, he goes around stealing things.”

On the subject of heartthrob new bad boy Harry Hook, Thomas admits basing the son of Harry Hook on a number of interesting real-life characters.

“[Descendants director Kenny Ortega] wanted Harry to have the swagger of Mick Jagger and the cheekiness of Harry Styles and I had Heath Ledger as the Joker – I kind of added that to the mix.”

Harry is the son of Captain Hook and a friend of Uma, the daughter of Ursula and enemy of Mal from her childhood in the Isle of the Lost. The teenagers who remained on the Isle harbour a lot of resentment towards Mal and her friends.

On the bad blood between Mal’s group and Uma’s, Thomas adds: “I think the difference between our characters is you got off the Isle. I’m still on the Isle of the Lost. I want to get off and have the life these guys have had. So there’s a lot of frustration and anger towards the injustice of it all. That’s my own journey.”

It’s a journey that resonates throughout the new film. Uma is driven by the anger she feels about the select few kids allowed to live in Auradon. She lives and works at her mother’s fish and chip shop, where the musical number “What’s My Name?” is set. The video, which was released in June this year on YouTube, has accumulated nearly 80 million hits.

The song was the first time Thomas has ever rapped, though he jokingly describes it as a “piece of cake”.

“I’d never done it before. If anything, I had to get over the wall of embarrassment.”

It’s not the only new skill Thomas and the other actors have had to acquire. The new Descendants film is bigger and better than ever before, featuring a huge extended fight sequence aboard a pirate ship where all the characters engage in sword fighting.

There’s one stunt he wasn’t particularly keen on, however. In the midst of the action-packed battle scene, Harry is forced to jump overboard.

“I jumped into the water from the crane,” says Thomas, “It was so scary. Everything was so heavy that I just went right back under.”

He and Booboo laugh. Thomas jokes: “Near death experience.”

Watch our full Descendants 2 coverage here:

Descendants 2 premieres on Friday 20th October at 5.30pm on Disney Channel

More on Film

REVIEW: Stephen King film season kicks off with Cat’s Eye on Horror Channel

Everyone is obsessed with Stephen King as of late, what with it being his 70th Birthday last month and the film adaptation of his legendary novel IT being one of the most hyped up movies of 2017. And the obsession need not stop now that the Horror Channel is showing King adaptations every Saturday at 9pm throughout October.

The network premiere of Cat’s Eye kicks off the Stephen King film season tomorrow night, a horror anthology movie which, if you’re unfamiliar with the genre, sees three or more stories linked together by a single character or theme. Reminiscent of works such as Twilight Zone or Dead of Night, Cat’s Eye ties three of King’s shocking short stories together by the adventures of a stray cat.

The 1985 film sees the feline lead wonder from tale to tale as the viewer witnesses events as if through his eyes. The first story focusses on a smoker named Dick (James Woods) who joins a dodgy self help group in the hope of giving up his unhealthy habit. The second story stars Robert Hays and Kenneth McMillan and sees an adulterous man forced to walk along a skyscraper’s narrow and hazardous ledge by an angry husband. Finally, the third tale is about the young Amanda (Drew Barrymore) who is afraid of a terrifying creature living behind her bedroom wall.

The third plot thread is perhaps the best part of the film. Amanda’s parents blame all suspicious activity on the family cat, but eventually we are led to a thrilling climax in which the pet attacks the dreaded monster the young girl is so afraid of.

We all know the special effects in 80’s films can verge on the ridiculous, but there’s a lot to be said for those executed in Cat’s Eye, each of which calls to a specific human phobia. One of the most hair-raising moments of the movie comes along during the skyscraper scene, in which character Jonny is left hanging from a petrifying height, and the drop from the building is far from looking fake or comical. Prepare yourself for scary sights in the electric room scene as well, not to mention the disturbing gremlin that is revealed in Amanda’s bedroom during the film’s final segment…

Cat’s Eye is a thrilling horror anthology which translates the writing of Stephen King well on to screen. And don’t forget to tune into the other King adaptions this October, as the Horror Channel also broadcasts Maximum Overdrive, Thinner and Children of the Corn every Saturday this month.

More on The Office

The Office will always go down as one of the greatest television series of all time since airing in 2001. The ‘mockumentary’ sitcom was written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant and the show’s awkward humour and wonderfully simple concept captivated viewers completely.

To mark The Office‘s 16th anniversary, Gervais took to Facebook yesterday (Sunday, July 9) to reveal the inspiration behind three of the show’s main characters.

“I had David Brent as a character from about 1995 I’d say, and he is based on people I’d met throughout my adult life,” he wrote.

“The very first scene of the series, where he is talking to the forklift truck driver, is based on an interview I had at a temp agency when I was 17, in the school holidays. He was in his mid-thirties wearing a bad suit. His opening sentence was, ‘I don’t give sh—y jobs’; I just looked at him and nodded.

“He said, ‘If a good guy comes to me… [he pointed at me to let me know he already knew I was a good guy] and says I wanna work hard because I wanna better myself, then I will make that happen.’ He phoned his friend and at one point said, ‘Yes, of course he’s 18,’ then he winked at me and did the Pinocchio nose mime. (It was nothing to do with fork-lift truck driving but it was for work in a warehouse).

“I never saw him again, but I used to do impressions of him as I told the anecdote over the years. He was the very first Brent I can remember. There have been many since.”

Talking about character Gareth Keenan, Gervais continued: “Gareth is even more of a fool than Brent in many ways. And even more immature. There’s a very good reason for that.

“He’s based on the kid I went to school with. I talk about him in most of my stand-up shows. He’s the one who put a crab in a pint of beer on holiday, because I told him, as a joke, ‘When a crab is drunk, it walks forwards.'”

Finally, the comedian revealed his inspiration behind one of the most beloved characters on the show: Tim Canterbury.

“Tim is based on a guy I used to work with, mixed with Norm from Cheers, a little Chandler from Friends, and a touch of Oliver Hardy,” Gervais explained.

“Stan and Ollie feature in all my work really. The blind leading the blind. Both thinking they’re with an idiot. Both right. Both struggling. And both needing each other to survive. Beautifully precarious.”

More on Descendants

A new music video from the upcoming Descendants 2 has been released online.

China Anne McClain and Thomas Doherty, who are new to the Descendants film franchise and play the daughter of Ursula and the son of Captain Hook respectively, feature in the new video, titled ‘What’s My Name?’.

Their characters, Uma and Harry, will serve as antagonists to the Descendants hero Mal (Dove Cameron), the daughter of Malificent.

In the first hit film, Mal and her friends Evie (Sofia Carson), Carlows (Cameron Boyce) and Jay (Booboo Stewart) were invited to attend school in the homeland of Disney heroes, Auradon, after it was decided children ought not to suffer from the mistakes of their parents. However, the second-generation villains were more than willing to use the experience as a way to help out their exiled parents.

‘What’s My Name’ is the second music video release from Descendants 2, after the release of ‘Ways To Be Wicked’ in April. It is one of six original songs to feature on the film’s soundtrack, which will also include reworked versions of The Little Mermaid‘s ‘Kiss the Girl’ and ‘Poor Unfortunate Souls’, starring McClain.

Speaking about the new tune, Disney Music and Soundtracks VP Steven Vincent said: “China Anne has such natural talent and a very soulful voice. In this song, she brings it all and adds the perfect amount of attitude to the performance – she’s a great actress who knows how to put character into her singing.”

More on Descendants

WATCH: Disney drops Descendants 2 trailer and first music video

The first trailer and music video for Disney’s Descendants 2 have dropped.

The film follows on with the adventures of Mal (Dove Cameron), Evie (Sofia Carson), Carlos (Cameron Boyce) and Jay (Booboo Stewart) – the children of some of Disney’s most infamous villains – after the success of the first film in 2015.

After the pressure of being perfect in Auradon becomes too much for Mal, she and her friends return home. When Mal discovers that her self-appointed position as the Queen of her former home the Isle of the Lost has been usurped by archenemy Uma (China Anne McClain), she returns to her rotten roots to reclaim it.

In the new trailer, we see Mal struggling with life in Auradon before Evie suggests returning home. Once back in the Isle of the Lost with a new haircut, Mal sets her sights on regaining her rightful place – with just a bit of song and dance in the meantime.

Disney has also released a new music video for one of the film’s musical numbers, titled ‘Ways to be Wicked’, following the success of ‘Rotten To The Core’. In the music video, Mal, Evie, Carlos and Jay cause chaos in Auradon.

Descendants 2 will introduce Mal’s archenemy Uma, the daughter of Ursula, and her cronies: Captain Hook’s son Harry (Thomas Doherty) and Gaston’s son Gil (Dylan Playfair).

Descendants 2 will premiere in Autumn 2017 on Disney Channel and DisneyLife.

More on Beauty and the Beast

Sir Ian McKellen reveals real reason why he turned down role of Dumbledore in Harry Potter

Actor Sir Ian McKellen has finally explained the reason why he turned down the part of Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films.

McKellen seemed like the perfect man to take on the role of the much-loved Dumbledore after Richard Harris sadly passed away in 2002.

When McKellen turned down the opportunity to star in the popular film series, many assumed this was due to his commitments elsewhere, as he was also playing Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings movies. However, the legendary actor has now uncovered the actual reason behind his decision, and it’s not what you might expect.

It turns out that Harris, who portrayed Dumbledore for the first two Harry Potter instalments, actually disapproved of McKellen as an actor.

Talking to BBC interview show HARDtalk, McKellen said: “When he died – he played Dumbledore, the wizard – I played the real wizard [Lord of the Rings‘ Gandalf] of course…

“When they called me up and said would I be interested in being in the Harry Potter films, they wouldn’t say what part but I worked out what they were thinking.”

However, McKellen admitted: “I couldn’t take over the part from an actor who I know disapproved of me.”

According to the actor, Harris had described McKellen, as well as fellow actors Sir Derek Jacobi and Sir Kenneth Branagh, as “technically brilliant but passionless”. Eesh.

In the end, it was Sir Michael Gambon who took on the hefty role for the rest of the Harry Potter series (remember when Dumbledore suddenly picked up an Irish accent and turned a bit angry?) Meanwhile, McKellen continued to play Gandalf in both the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies.

McKellen currently stars as Cogsworth in the live-action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast, and he will also join Emily Blunt, Sylvester Stallone and Danny DeVito in voicing the upcoming animation Animal Crackers.

More on Beauty and the Beast

WATCH: The moment Belle falls in love in new Beauty and the Beast clip

Disney’s highly anticipated remake of Beauty and the Beast is finally arriving in cinemas this Friday (March 17), and fans have been given a taste of what’s to come in an all-new video clip.

Ahead of the film’s release, Disney has dropped a 46 second clip from the upcoming, live-action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast. And it’s the cutest thing ever.

The video shows the moment Belle falls in love with the Beast, and features vocals from Emma Watson and Dan Stevens as they sing the original classic “Something There”. You can watch the clip in full below:

Earlier this week, Emma Watson revealed why she rejected La La Land to play her lead role as the Disney Princess.

Speaking on Lorraine, the Harry Potter actress revealed exactly why she chose not to play the female lead in Damien Chazelle’s La La Land. The star explained how she had turned down the job offer in order to fully commit to her role as Belle.

She said: “I was saying before it’s like you can’t half-arse a project like this, you know, you’re in or you’re out. And I was like I’ve kinda got to be all in and so this was really where my heart was and I knew I had to fully commit and make sure that I did this.”

Emma also emphasised the importance of creating films that make people smile. She said: “For me it’s so important to have films that are just pure joy. And that’s what this film is. It’s pure joy.”